RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE CIRCUMCISION by Stephen Benton

THE PASTOR'S PEN

RIGHTEOUSNESS BEFORE CIRCUMCISION:  (Romans 4 & 5)

by Stephen Benton

        Many Pentecostals have problems with the book of Romans because, quite frankly, it contradicts what they believe.  Let me make a parenthetical insert here:  

(The Holy Ghost was given to lead and guide us into all truth.  The key problem with organizational and denominational doctrine is that it is already processed, packaged, and fixed as far as its contents are concerned.  Because of those facts, it actually hinders the work of the Holy Ghost as He attempts to lead and guide us into more truth.  Most preachers and teachers who are associated with denominations and organizations continually attempt to stay within the doctrinal confines of their religious party.  That act results in quenching the Spirit.  The word of God is alive and because it is, one can count on the fact that it will constantly encroach upon established organizational and denominational boundaries.  The sincere student of God's word will follow the voice of the Spirit into unchartered territory and trust that the Holy Ghost knows exactly where He is going even though the route doesn't look like the proper course.  As example of what I am saying can be found in Moses' experience when he led the children of Israel out of  Egypt.  Moses knew the way to Canaan.  I am sure he had mentally surveyed the route he would take many times.  Yet when the Cloud led them out of  Egypt we are told in the scriptures that the Lord led they another way.

          "And it came to pass, when Pharoah had let the people go, that God led them not through the way of the land of the  Philistines, although that was near; for God said, Lest peradventure the people repent when they see war, and they return to Egypt:

          But God led the people about, through the way of the wilderness of the Red Sea: and the children of Israel went up harnessed out of the land of Egypt".

Exodus 13:17 & 18.

        Logic would not dictate crossing the Red Sea.  This is also an example of what God meant when he spoke of His "ways." When following the Lord, one thing you must come to depend on is that He will never go the way you think He should go and almost never will He go the way you expect to go.  Regarding my Pentecostal brothers and sisters and colleagues, understanding God's ways, it is not like God to give scriptural light to a group of people on Azusa Street in 1906 and never take it beyond that point.  Most Pentecostals cannot receive additional truth and light from God's word because they believe they already have all there is and for decades they have been in the business of defending what they call the "Pentecostal Doctrine."  For these reasons and others, the writer to the churches in Revelation constantly ended the letters with the admonition, "he that hath an ear to hear, let him hear what the Spirit saith to the churches." Why? Because the Spirit will not lay down a specific truth and then become mute until the end of the Church Age but He will continue to speak and give deeper insight into the word as it leads and guides us into all truth. Once a given truth has become fixed, even though it was initially given by God, it then passes into the "doctrine of men" category.)

Written in the THE WEEKLY WORD OF THE HOUSE OF GOOD NEWS                         12/22/1996

To read more current revelations from Pastor Steve, check out his book published September of 2017 on Amazon.com

 https://smile.amazon.com/Gods-Final-Secret-Stephen-Benton/dp/1976338476/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1509271792&sr=1-1&keywords=god%27s+final+secret+by+stephen+benton